Heart stopping moment an elephant charges towards a family in a national park
Topics: Animals, World News, News
Kya Buller
Featured Image Credit: Newsflare
Topics: Animals, World News, News
A jaw-dropping moment that showed an elephant charging two tourists has been captured on camera.
The incident took place at the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, India.
Two men left their car to take selfies with the elephant as it walked along a road.
The footage, which was captured by another visitor in a separate car, showed the chaos that ensued. Check it out:
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The two men can be seen running as fast as they can to get away and save their lives, but one trips and falls over.
The angry elephant then attempts to kick the man which one of its back legs - and with a stroke of luck, misses his head.
The elephant is then distracted by a bus that is approaching the road and leaves the men alone whilst they return to safety.
One witness, Savad C.A, recounted the horror he watched unfold as he sat in his car with his family.
He said: "At one point, we thought one of the men would be trampled by the animal.
"The man who fell down had a miraculous escape as the elephant turned its attention to a passing vehicle just as it was upon him. We sped away as we were very much shocked."
The Karnataka Forest Department have now launched an inquiry into the incident and are making attempts to identify the tourists in question.
Despite their seemingly calm demeanour, elephants are not to be messed with.
The Kerala Forest Department recently gave a tourist a substantial fine after they attempted to take a selfie with an elephant herd and also had to make a narrow escape from them.
Officials have also stated that trespassing on prohibited forest land is punishable with a sentence behind bars of up to three years, a fine, or both.
On 30 March this year, an 80-year-old woman was killed whilst on a tourist safari in Zambia after an elephant charged at their vehicle.
Several travellers were harmed during the incident that took place at Kafue National Park.
People made attempts to scare the elephant away by shouting 'Ey, ey!' but it was to no avail.
The elephant then used it's trunk to flip the truck over completely.
The terrifying ordeal happened during a day trip organised by the tour company Wilderness Safaris.
CEO Keith Vincent said in a statement to press: "Given the nature of the incident, the Police, the Department of National Parks & Wildlife, and other authorities are involved in investigating the matter.
"Wilderness is cooperating fully with this process. This is a tragic event and we extend our deepest condolences to the family of the guest who died. We are also, naturally, supporting those guests and the guide involved in this distressing incident."
It was then reported that 'trauma counselling' had been given 'to all involved'.